The present invention relates to an upper vehicle-body structure of a vehicle, and particularly relates to the upper vehicle-body structure of the vehicle comprising a synthetic resin-made reinforcing member provided inside a roof side rail.
A structure of the vehicle in which the reinforcing member for improving the vehicle-body rigidity is provided in a closed cross section of a frame is known because the vehicle requires the collision safety, the maneuverability and stability, and the silence.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2001-191947 discloses an upper vehicle-body structure which comprises a hard synthetic resin-made first reinforcing member which is provided inside a center pillar and a hard synthetic resin-made second reinforcing member which is provided inside a roof side portion for the purpose of increasing the strength against a vehicle side collision.
In the upper vehicle-body structure of the above-described patent document, the first and second reinforcing members are fixed to specified positions inside the respective frames by filling foamable resin. However, this structure has the following problems. First, it cannot be confirmed in manufacturing whether or not the reinforcing members and respective inside faces of the frames are joined together by the foamable resin without any gap formed therebetween. Secondly, when the frames are deformed by an external force, adhesion portions with the foamable resin are destroyed in an early stage and thereby separate moves of the frames and the reinforcing members are allowed, so that the performance of the reinforcing members for suppressing deformation of frame sections cannot be obtained as expected. Thirdly, the foaming agent blocks smooth flowing of electrodeposition liquid inside the frames, so that rusting is induced on an inner face of the frames.